What about dinner somewhere like the Melting Pot or Benihana where it's more interactive and fun than a regular restaurant? Depending on your budget, you could add in any of the following 'features':
- bring in a stylist to do blow drys and/or make-up for the girls at the house before they go out
- treat the girls to manicures before dinner.
- hire a limo to take them to dinner and then maybe out for ice cream somewhere fun - ask one of the guests to put together a fun play list for them to listen to in the limo
- make special menu cards for the restaurant - header says X's Sweet Sixteen with food being served for dinner - inexpensive but makes the night out seem more special
Or, if you don't have the budget for weekend in NYC, could you do a night away at National Harbor - rent two adjoining hotel rooms (one for 4 girls, one for parents) - girls could go out to dinner, ride ferris wheel, take photos, swim at pool, hang out, etc. Or, could do progressive tour of National Harbor - pick up coffee drinks at Starbucks, get nails done at Divine Nails, go have appetizers at one restaurant (chips, salsa and guac at Rosa Mexicana), dinner at another place, dessert at cupcake place with cupcakes waiting with the bday girl's name on them, and finish with ferris wheel, etc? Provide the girls with a passport that lays out their itinerary for the night. Or, if you're creative, do a scavenger hunt around NH?